From the depths around them, various creatures arose. Some bore pale, palid flesh that had been etched by decay, rotting blackish-yellow pus oozing from bright-pink wounds.

“Retania! Bullets!” Stark shouted. The woman beside him who had previously decried Ophelia suddenly sprang into action, throwing a magazine over to the man. Ophelia and Despair fell back-to-back, eyeing the approaching horde of monsters with aggression. What sort of strange world had they fallen into? Even this was without warning from Mr. Demeter, so it must be of importance! Was another fragment of Lumière Croft hidden in this weird place?

Ophelia turned towards Despair, “why don’t we just leave? Dealing with these monsters seems boring.”

“Agreed. Let’s just leave these people to whatever they were doing previous to our arrival. It’s none of our business, and it’s certainly not our problem.”

The two scoffed as they began to waltz in the opposite direction of the approaching horde, the group of humans acting as a stopgap between them.

Suddenly, a figure emerged from the shadows, raising an m1911 in the air as he fired off several bullets, blood cascading past them as the rounds erupted through the monsters skulls. Ophelia and Despair shot this person a glance, turning around.

He had dark, slicked back hair and piercing blue eyes. His face was grim, but the edges of his lips twitched with a hint of craziness. He wore a fine black suit and a black tie, and his formal shoes clacked against the stone floor as he walked towards the group, ignoring the monsters around him. A thick black aura permeated from his figure, pitch-black footprints buried in the floor behind him.

He raised his pistol as a monster lunged at him, sending a bullet bursting through its brains before it could even touch the ground. Another jumped up at him from below, but he had already pulled out a balisong, its momentum carrying it into his blade without him needing to twitch a single muscle. The figure stopped just before the two, not paying a glance towards the man, Stark, and the woman, Retania.

“Good morning.” He smiled genially. There was a hint of madness retained in his expression.

“You’re still alive?”

It was Lain! This crazy bastard had survived all of that madness, all of that struggle! But how?

Lain shrugged. “Lumière Croft tried to kill me, but his guess was wrong as to how this would work- he forgot to anticipate the fact that I am only an ‘illusion’, not his true body. In the end, he was the one that died, and I was sent here…”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

But even that raised more questions… it was just too odd.

“Why were you sent here? We were retained in the abyss of his mind, even Lumière himself appeared in there before he shattered. Why were you different?” Despair raised an eyebrow, kicking at one of the monsters without breaking eye contact. It burst into a thousand bloody pieces, splattering against the ground ahead.

Lain shrugged.

“I just woke up a few minutes ago, I’ve been walking through this place only a short time. There’s a beautiful field outside of this place…”

Ophelia reached into his coat pocket, procuring the fiercely-beating heart. It immediately began spilling blood onto the ground, dripping down his arm and sleeve. Lain’s eyebrow raised as he saw this.

“What is that?”

“It’s Lumière Croft’s, or at least its representation… Mr. Demeter said so.”

As soon as Lain came close to the heart, it began to react violently. It churned, twisting, until it thrust itself at Lain, absorbing itself into his body. Half of his hair turned a dark-brown colour, spilling outwards towards its edges like oil. Ophelia and Despair glanced at each other, smirking.

“It’s like building a doll… and Lain is the base…” Ophelia chuckled dryly, placing a hand against his chin as he began to contemplate.

“What are you talking about?”

Despair raised an eyebrow. “What if he is one of these ‘representations’? After all, we came to the conclusion that the ‘craziness’ of Lumière Croft was something he took from Lain. If you’re here now… it may just be the case that you’re not real…”

Lain raised his pistol again, shooting several holes into the side of an approaching monster. His shots were getting sloppier.

“I feel perfectly real.”

“Shut up, dog.” Ophelia spoke in a low, wry tone of voice. He then turned towards the crowd of monsters, pointing towards them. “You mentioned that you saw a field outside of this place. Is there an exit past those monsters?”

The crowd had waned significantly since Lain had appeared, but many of the members of the human group had already fallen to them, plus the one that Despair had killed when they had arrived.

Overhearing them, Stark shouted towards them, grimacing as he continued to shoot at the approaching monsters.

“There-there is no exit! The only way out of this place is to kill its Master, Mauniel! This is his Citadel! There is no escape otherwise!”

“I really did find a place. It’s how I got in here.” Lain mentioned casually, brushing blood off of his cheek, which only smeared it further.

“Good, lead us to it.” The three seemed to act in a calm, professional matter, as if everything that was happening around them was completely below them. It was like the significances of this world had no sway on their hearts, like they were just passing by, only visitors.

“Wait! Take us with you if you have a way out!”

Ophelia glanced down towards the man, a look of disgust etching itself into his face.

“Why the fuck would we do that?”

Staring at Ophelia, the man, Stark, seemed to have fear, true fear within his eyes. He realised it then. It was the same look he had on his face when he had first witnessed Mauniel, the Demon of the Citadel.

This person was a Demon, a true Demon!

“Goodbye, then.” Ophelia smirked, turning his gaze away as he continued walking away from them alongside Lain and Despair.

Cries echoed through the hall as the remaining people were consumed by the horde of monsters, and darkness overtook the area.